Read about Gnetaceae in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture
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Gnetaceae (from the genus Gnetum, derived from Gnemon, said to be the old Malay name of the plant). Gnetum Family. Fig. 5. Very peculiar semi-woody plants of diverse habit: leaves large and broad, or modified, or reduced, or opposite, or whorled: no resin-tubes in the stem; secondary wood containing true vessels: true flowers present, with a 2-4-parted perianth, unisexual, rarely bisexual; stamens 2-8; pistillate perianth becoming juicy or wing-like in fruit and inclosing one naked orthotropous seed with 1 or 2 integuments. The family consists of 3 genera and about 35-40 species, widely distributed. It is distinguished from the Coniferae by the presence of a perianth, the absence of resin-tubes, and the presence of vessels in the secondary wood. The endosperm development, also, approaches that of the Angiosperms. The fertilization is by means of pollen-tubes. The three genera are very distinct: Ephedra, of the tropics of both hemispheres, is much branched, with slender jointed striate equisetum-like stems, leaves scale-like at the distant nodes; Gnetum of South America, except one species, is a group of vines or shrubs with large broad leaves like those of an Angiosperm; Welwitschia of South Africa is a desert plant with a thick subterranean stem bearing two ribbon-like leaves 6 feet long, lying flat on the ground, and with a terminal cluster of cone-like flower-spikes.CH
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References
- Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963
External links
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